Glass lantern slides, projected by magic lantern projectors, created a
public sensation at the 1851 world's fair in London's Crystal Palace. By
the turn of the century, lantern slides had found lucrative markets in
advertising, religious and science education, children's toys, and popular
entertainment. On rooftops, advertisements projected onto giant screens
attracted the attention of passing pedestrians. In classrooms, lecture theatres,
church halls, and missions at home and abroad, slide-illustrated sermons and
lectures played to spellbound audiences.

Lantern slides ran the gamut from simple monochrome
or hand-coloured photographic and hand-painted images, to mechanical slides
which were manipulated by projectionists to animate the scene. Viewers sat
entranced as donkeys bucked their riders into the mud, ocean steamers pitched
on moving waves, and moving kaleidoscopes of colour filled the screen.

Sources of illumination were as varied as the slides, and ranged from low-powered candles, oil
and kerosene lamps, to gaslight, acetylene, limelight, and the brilliant but hazardous
carbon arc lighting. By the time incandescent electric light came to dominate the lantern
scene in the early decades of this century, motion pictures were making steady inroads in
the popular entertainment field. By the 1930s, compact 35mm slides became common, and
fragile glass lantern slides lost still more ground. By the 1950s they were almost
completely obsolete.